Here’s a look at the choices Boehner faces in the coming days – and the possible consequences:

Don't budge

Boehner’s most obvious path is to stay the course by insisting that any legislation to fund the government must include provisions aimed at delaying or dismantling key elements of Obamacare. This would keep hard-line conservatives in the House GOP conference happy – which is key if Boehner wants to keep his speakership.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Garrison, Ky., has said all the GOP needs to do in this fight is “stand firm.” He and others believe that eventually Democratic opposition will soften and they can win a clear victory.

Even some of those who thought it was a losing strategy to tie Obamacare to keeping the government open say now that Boehner has started down this path, Republicans need to see it through.

“When you make your jump into the Valley of Death, you’ve got to keep running,” said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. “This was not a winning strategy,” he said. But, “at this point, we have to keep going.”

What will the results be? “Good question,” Nunes said.

Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the result will be defeat. He said there’s “not a chance” Democrats will give in to the proposed changes to health care reform. Eventually, public anger over the shutdown will force some Republicans to rethink their position, he said, and Boehner’s troops will start to “flake off,” possibly voting with Democrats to pass a funding bill that is free of any GOP add-ons.

Go for a 'grand bargain'

Boehner and President Barack Obama came close in 2011 to agreeing on a package of tax increases, entitlement program changes and spending cuts that would have slashed annual federal deficits. But it fell apart amid bitter recriminations on both sides.

Boehner could try to revive those talks and address the current spending impasse and another looming battle over raising the debt ceiling in one big agreement. The U.S. Treasury secretary has said the country will hit its current borrowing cap on Oct. 17, raising the specter of a default unless Congress agrees to raise the limit.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said that’s the best course right now.

“We’ve done what we can do at this point (in the fight against Obamacare), including taking the government into shutdown,” the Terrace Park resident said.

Republicans should give that up – for now – and try instead to strike a deal with the White House and Senate Democrats that includes spending cuts, entitlement reforms, an overhaul of the tax code and an increase in the debt ceiling.

“I wouldn’t call it a grand bargain,” he said. “I’d call it a good deal for the American taxpayer.”

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., agreed there are “enough elements here to create a large deal” and expressed optimism that one was possible. But he noted that the key players – namely Boehner and Obama – don’t trust each other anymore.

Besides, in the wake of the last negotiations, Boehner told his angry GOP troops that he would not negotiate with the president anymore. And Obama has similarly said he’s not interested in deal-making over the debt ceiling.

Sabato said the window for a “grand bargain” has probably closed.

Play small ball, for now

Boehner could look for some incremental resolution to the shutdown and gird for a big fight with the White House and Senate Democrats as the debt ceiling deadline nears.

“He needs something to save face,” said Stephen Wayne, a government professor at Georgetown University. “The longer the issue drags out, the less tenable his and the Republicans’ position becomes. So I think they have to resolve it.”

He said maybe Obama would agree to a small concession on health reform, such as nixing the subsidies lawmakers and their staffs will receive once they have to purchase insurance through the health care exchanges set up under Obamacare.

David Winston, a GOP pollster for House Republicans, said that could work as long as it doesn’t look like “one side just outright wins.” Then Boehner could say, “We didn’t get everything we wanted but we got more than we thought.”

But it’s unclear what concession would be big enough to win the backing of hard-line conservatives in the House and small enough to win support from Obama and Senate Democrats. Neither side will want to give too much, because it could weaken their respective positions heading into the bigger debt ceiling fight.

That brings us back to the first option.

GOP leaders have a hand “they could easily make worse by panicking,” but which they could win “if they keep calm,” William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, wrote in a column this week.

“The best thing Speaker Boehner could probably do now is to say it’s obvious Senate Democrats aren’t going to negotiate, that the House GOP remains ready to talk (and the GOP conferees are in town and ready to confer), but that he’s sending the rest of the Republican congressmen home for the next few days in order to talk with their constituents,” he wrote.

Republicans could make their case at home, while Boehner and his leadership team contemplated their options on the debt ceiling. ■